| Before we were saved by God’s grace, it is written of us that “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” But now, thank God, it is said of us who know the Savior that “ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls,” that One who says that “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” But though we are forever safe in His fold, we still have the capacity to go “astray like a lost sheep” and to act like an unsaved person acts, for we still have within us that fleshly nature common to all men, in which “dwelleth no good thing.” Therefore we are exhorted to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” But, thank God, when we who know Him go “astray like a lost sheep,” “our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,” calls us back to His fellowship, when “we confess our sins” to Him. |
